854 Shark policy in Australia as an example of Green anti-Humanism

Shark policy in Australia as an example of Green anti-Humanism

Newsletter published on 29 September 2016

(1) Shark policy in Australia as an example of Green anti-Humanism
(2) Ballina shark attack; Eco barriers failed
(3) 17-year-old surfer, who once rejected shark nets, is in hospital
after being bitten
(4) Shark attacks hurting surfing business, north coast shop owner says
(5) Two rare Japanese stingrays killed; Sea Shepherd calls Qld shark
nets "an indiscriminate killing machine"
(6) South Africa shark attack; Greens lobby against shark nets
(7) Surfer president not contacted by Government shark experts doing a
great-white tagging program
(8) Federal Minister open to potential shark cull
(9) Tony Abbott calls for shark nets, and a commercial shark fishery in
northern NSW
(10) Australian Fisheries Management Authority introduces Quota system
for Southern Shark Fishery
(11) Fishing industry battered by shark quota cut
(12) Call for overturning ban on killing Great Whites and easing
restrictions on Shark fishing

(1) Shark policy in Australia as an example of Green anti-Humanism
Peter Myers, september 29, 2016

A few decades ago, it was common for Marxists to depict Marxism as a
kind of Humanism, albeit one not based on a fixed 'human nature'. But
the Green Left has overturned that, putting humans on the same level as
animals, and in some cases on a higher level. Peter Singer, a Jewish
Marxist, is the pre-eminent philosopher of the Green Left.

Factory farming of animals, like clear-felling of forests, is an
extremist practice that has allowed Greens to go to the opposite
extreme: veganism on one hand, and locking up the forests on the other.

Australian governments installed shark nets on the beaches of Sydney
(NSW), the Gold Coast (Qld) and Fremantle (WA). Drum lines are also used
to bait and catch big sharks. Greens have been campaigning for removal
of both protective measures.

Their arguments have been that sharks are endangered, and that other
animals, eg dolphina and turtles, are caught in the nets as an
unintended consequence.

Some decades ago, Greens, as a minority party using wedge tactics in
Parliament, got Labor Governments to set a Shark Quota, limiting the
number of sharks that fishermen can catch. As a result, shark numbers
have been building up in Australian waters, and attacks have been
increasing.

In addition they had Great Whites protected, making it a crime to kill them.

Greens claim the moral high gropund, but as human fatalities increase,
the public are waking up to the fact that they are extremists. Whenever
humans are killed or attacked by sharks, they are quick to respond with
statements about dolphins being killed and sharks being endangered.
Journalists, being largely Greens themselves, have given them a helping
hand, not least by suppressing the term 'Shark Quota' from news reports
- thus servering the link between cause and effect.

Using the same wedge tactics, Greens got compliant Governments to stack
the Government Departments and Boards that regulate the fishing industry
and environmental matters.

Recently, Eco barriers that were supposedly a substutute for shark nets,
have failed and Surfers have called for a shark cull. The Qld government
has offered to extend its shark nets from the Gold Coast into northern
NSW; but the local Green mayor rejected them because  but the mesh
'kills so many dolphins and turtles'.

Shark nets are installed on a minute percentage of the world's beaches.
The volume of the oceans is so great, and those protected coastlines so
small, that shark nets cannot have much affect on the overall numbers of
turtles, dolphins, stingrays etc. The real issue is whether it
acceptable to cause a few such unintended deaths whilst saving human
lives. Greens say No.

(2) Ballina shark attack; Eco barriers failed

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-27/nsw-government-commits-millions-on-shark-nets-not-delivered/7880444

Ballina shark attack: NSW Government committed millions to barriers not
delivered

By Nick Dole and staff

It has emerged the NSW Government signed contracts worth more than $2.6
million for shark barriers that were never installed, a day after a
teenaged surfer survived a shark attack on the far north coast.

One of the barriers, worth $1.3 million, was due to be installed at
Ballina's Lighthouse Beach, where 17-year-old surfer Cooper Allen was
mauled by a shark on Monday.

The teenager is still recovering in Lismore Base Hospital following the
attack in which he was bitten on the upper-thigh.

However, attempts to install the barrier were abandoned in August, due
to the weather and tidal conditions at the beach.

Another barrier at nearby Lennox Head, valued at $1.33 million, was
scrapped after the design was deemed inappropriate for the beach.

The contracts, with suppliers Eco Shark Barrier and Global Marine
Enclosures, state they will provide "design, construction,
transportation, installation, maintenance and removal" of the shark
barriers.

Opposition primary industries spokesman Mick Veitch called on the
Minister, Niall Blair, to explain the cost to taxpayers. ... Mr Veitch
said the Government should have known the eco-barriers were an
unsuitable solution.

"If they'd spoken to the locals, they'd know there was a great risk with
these eco-barriers."

"[It's] because of the tidal action of that part of the coastline and
the waves." [...]

Surfers call for shark cull on north coast

Le-Ba Boardriders president Don Munro said the NSW Government was not
doing enough to protect north coast surfers.

"We want drum lines in, we want the commercial fisherman locally to be
given back their licence to manage and remove a shark permanently," he said.

He said, while "wholesale slaughter" was not the answer, but that there
should be some sort of local cull.

"We're going to just continue to see more attacks and they'll end up,
through sheer weight of the percentages ... that we're going to have
fatal ones. [...]

A statement from Ballina Council said the Department of Primary
Industries had doubled aerial patrols and was deploying smart drumlines.
[...]

Queensland Premier offers to build shark nets

Queensland's Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has offered to help extend
the state's shark nets into Northern NSW in the wake of the attack. [...]

Ballina Mayor David Wright said increasing surveillance was a better
idea than the mesh used to protect Sydney and the Gold Coast.

"Because it kills so many dolphins and turtles, I just don't think the
local community - Seabird Rescue and all those things - that they would
countenance it," he said.

"We know it's a risk if you go in the water. There are other means, and
I think shark spotters or whatever."

(3) 17-year-old surfer, who once rejected shark nets, is in hospital
after being bitten
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-26/ballina-shark-attack:-teenage-surfer-bitten-at-lighthouse-beach/7876892

Ballina shark attack: Teenage surfer bitten at Lighthouse Beach

Updated September 26, 2016 21:55:35

A 17-year-old surfer, who once rejected the need for shark nets, is in
hospital after being bitten on the upper-thigh while surfing at
Lighthouse Beach at Ballina, on the New South Wales far north coast.

Richmond Police Inspector Nicole Bruce said the victim, named as Cooper
Allen, was attacked by a shark about 9:00am.

A shark eco-barrier trial at Lighthouse Beach was scrapped in August due
to ongoing rough conditions.

(4) Shark attacks hurting surfing business, north coast shop owner says
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28/shark-attacks-hurting-north-coast-surfing-business/7883934

By Samantha Turnbull and staff

Updated September 28, 2016 20:54:12

A Ballina surf shop has cancelled an order for $70,000 worth of summer
stock following another shark attack on the New South Wales north coast,
its owner says.

Surfer Cooper Allen, 17, was mauled by a shark at Ballina's Lighthouse
Beach on Monday.

It was the fourth serious shark attack along the one-kilometre stretch
of beach in less than two years.

The teenager is still recovering from injuries to his upper thigh in the
Lismore Base Hospital.

Following the attack, Ballina surf shop owner Richard Beckers cancelled
an order of $70,000 worth of summer stock.

Mr Beckers said people were not confident about going into the water and
that it was having an effect on demand for surfing paraphernalia. [...]

North coast residents 'always on edge'

Mr Beckers said the threat of shark attacks is never far from his mind.

"For me, personally, I see an ambulance roar past the shop and I think
shark attack straight away," he said.

"You're always on edge and worried about when the next shark attack will
happen."

He said installing shark nets should be a priority.

"People's confidence has been diminished with the failure of the shark
barrier," he said.

"We need shark mesh nets to go in as soon as possible to get people's
confidence back to go back in the water.

"I never used to be for shark nets, I love my sea life, but I think it's
the only way at the moment. [...]

(5) Two rare Japanese stingrays killed; Sea Shepherd calls Qld shark
nets "an indiscriminate killing machine"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-22/rare-japanese-rays-queensland-shark-control-sea-shepherd/7189844

Two rare Japanese stingrays killed by Queensland's shark control program
on the Gold Coast

By Matt Watson

Two rare Japanese Devilrays have been killed by Queensland's shark
control program at Miami on the Gold Coast.

The rays, which can grow to a width of three metres, were found in the
same net by members of the Sea Shepherd crew on Saturday.

The International Union for Conservation for Nature (ICUN) lists the
stingray species as near-threatened.

The Sea Shepherd's Natalie Banks said Japanese Devilrays have rarely
been documented in Australia.

"According to the ICUN, there have only been two reported sightings in
Australian waters," she said.

"This is a gruesome discovery of two rare mobula rays. A second Japanese
Ray caught and killed in a shark net at Miami on the Gold Coast.

"It is clear one of the rays was bitten by a shark, most likely as it
was drowning in the net or after it had died.

"I am devastated that such a rare sighting of these rays involves their
deaths in one shark net."

The Sea Shepherd organisation has described Queensland's shark control
program as an indiscriminate killing machine.

The program is responsible for killing thousands of non-targeted
species, known as bycatch.

Ms Banks said the Queensland Government should bring greater
transparency to its shark control program by releasing photographs and
footage of all the animals killed on nets and drum lines.

"The Gold Coast is a tourist mecca for Queensland," Ms Banks said.

"We wonder if tourists would continue to come to these beaches if they
knew the destruction and deaths of such magnificent marine life is
occurring at the beaches they frequent and that these catches are
attracting sharks to the area."

"The entrapment of such rare marine life should trigger a review of the
use of shark nets and drum lines, to see whether they should be removed
during certain times of the year."

Since 1962 approximately 50,000 sharks have been caught in the shark
control program.

Queensland Fisheries Minister Leanne Donaldson said the government has a
duty to protect swimmers at popular beaches.

     The entrapment of such rare marine life should trigger a review of
the use of shark nets and drum lines, to see whether they should be
removed during certain times of the year -     Natalie Banks

"I will not compromise on human safety," she said.

"Successive governments have recognised the vital role the shark control
program has played in protecting human life at those beaches which
attract tourists from all over the world and throughout the year.

"Since 1962, despite a big increase in the number of people swimming at
those beaches, there has been only one fatality."

The Queensland Government is continuing to look at advances in
technology and improvements to the program to protect marine life, but
they must be thoroughly tested to ensure they keep people safe.

Arrangements are in place for the Queensland Government to access the
outcomes of the various trials currently being undertaken in New South
Wales.

Ms Banks said beachgoers need to be protected, but the Government should
develop a program that did not destroy precious marine life.

"Sea Shepherd has invited the Queensland Government to meet with
representatives from Cape Town's Shark Spotters program in March," she said.

"I am hopeful that a representative will attend on behalf of Premier
Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has advised that she has other engagements."

(6) South Africa shark attack; Greens lobby against shark nets

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33600499

Shark attack: Is it safe to go back in South Africa's waters?

By Pumza Fihlani

BBC News, Johannesburg

20 July 2015

South Africa's coastline stretches over thousands of kilometres and is
popular with beach-goers and surfers almost all year round.

But more and more reports of shark attacks are making it into the news,
begging the question: "Are South Africa's beaches safe?"

The footage of Australian surfer Mick Fanning being attacked by a shark,
screened live at the weekend, has caused both intrigue and some panic.

Mr Fanning, a three-time world champion, was competing in the final of
the J-Bay Open, an international surfing tournament in Jeffreys Bay in
the Eastern Cape, when he escaped an attack by two identified sharks.

There has not been a shark attack in that area since 2013, said a
national safety spokesman

Zig Zag Surfing magazine editor Calvin Bradley witnessed the attack. He
said: "When his turn came I saw the shark's fin appear from nowhere.

"Mick disappeared from where we could see him. We were expecting the
worst when we saw that it was a shark."

Mr Fanning said he managed to punch the shark in its back and was
rescued from the water by people on jet skis.

But experts say shark attacks in South Africa are uncommon. [...]

To net or not to net? [...]

The province of KwaZulu-Natal has introduced shark nets - large meshes
placed several metres below the water to form of barrier between sharks
and humans. [...]

Environmentalists say they can pose a danger to the sharks - which
sometimes get trapped in the wires. They also require regular
maintenance. [...]

(7) Surfer president not contacted by Government shark experts doing a
great-white tagging program
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/leba-president-don-munro-disgusted-by-csiro-and-dpi-shark-experts/news-story/a8e06cae2f1797ae6092165534dbb855?nk=775219cd60f4e2c2ac1ba60fe47b9955-1475048359

Le-Ba president Don Munro ‘disgusted’ by CSIRO and DPI shark experts

FRED PAWLE

The Australian August 26, 2015

The president of the Le-Ba boardriders club on the NSW North Coast is
"devastated and disgusted" that he has not been contacted by the two
shark experts in town to start a great-white tagging program.

Don Munro, whose club is based in Ballina and Lennox Head, where
frequent sightings and attacks have kept most surfers out of the water
for more than a month, said the "shield" around the two experts was
"very hard to penetrate".

He said the tagging program was "not going to help our cause in the
slightest".

The two experts are Barry Bruce, of the CSIRO, and Vic Peddemors, of the
NSW Department of Primary Industries.

The Australian phoned Dr Peddemors, but he directed inquiries to his
department’s head office in Sydney. The DPI’s media representative said
Dr Peddemors was "not available" for comment. Questions emailed to Dr
Peddemors yesterday were not answered.

The joint DPI-CSIRO tagging program began yesterday.

A report in the local Northern Star newspaper said the intention was to
"tag all the great whites believed to be roaming the North Coast".

The report quoted Dr Peddemors saying the recent abundance of great
whites off the coast was a "temporary aggregation".

Mr Munro said he had spoken to several professional fishermen and "not
one of them is saying the sharks are not increasing".

Lennox Head commercial fisherman Paul Morrisey told The Australian last
month that great whites had been present off the North Coast year-round
for the past two years. Mr Morrisey had not seen great whites with such
frequency in his 33 years working in the area.

Mr Munro said tagging the sharks was not going to stop them coming close
to beaches. "I don’t need a university degree to know that (the sharks)
are not going away."

Information from the tags will be seen by researchers only, and not
shared with beach-goers.

Mr Munro said he had been approached by people offering methods to deter
sharks from beaches and surf breaks, which were arguably more effective
than tagging, and he was enlisting lobbyists to have the local ocean
users’ voices heard more clearly.

Mr Munro said he was baffled by NSW Premier Mike Baird’s faith in the
tagging program.

"I don’t know how Baird can think this is a good thing," he said. "If
there’s another incident, it’s on their head."

(8) Federal Minister open to potential shark cull

http://www.echo.net.au/2016/09/minister-open-potential-shark-cull/

  September 28, 2016

Minister open to potential shark cull

Chris Dobney & Darren Coyne

The federal environment minister says he is open to proposals for drum
lines and a cull of great white sharks, including on the NSW north coast.

‘I absolutely put human safety first and foremost in my mind,’ Josh
Frydenberg told ABC TV on Wednesday, adding that federal approval was
needed for a cull or drum lines because the sharks are a vulnerable species.

His comments come following teenager Cooper Allen’s shark bite while
surfing at Ballina’s Lighthouse Beach on Monday.

The teen had previously told media he was opposed to culling and netting.

Vice president of Australian Seabird Rescue and Ballina Shire
councillor, Keith Williams, has added his voice to the tide of opinion
against the idea of a shark cull or the introduction of shark nets.

Shark nets are indiscriminate and could decimate local marine wildlife
if introduced said, Mr Williams.

White sharks are oceanic and roam thousands of kilometres. The idea that
killing some sharks locally might reduce the risk of attack is wishful
thinking, he said.

But Mr Frydenberg’s comments have been echoed by some in the north coast
surfing community, including Le Ba Boardriders president Don Munro, who
told ABC this morning ‘selective control’ may be required.

Former prime Minister Tony Abbott has led the call for a cull, telling
Radio 3AW yesterday that ‘if it’s a choice between people and animals,
I’m on the side of the people every time’.

‘I’m lucky to surf on Sydney beaches and beaches in Sydney, Newcastle
and Wollongong (which) since the 1940s have been protected by mesh,’ he
said.

‘Now if it’s good enough for Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, for the
life of me, I don’t know why it’s not good enough for the north coast of
NSW.’

Mr Abbott also questioned why a commercial shark fishery had not yet
been considered for the area. [...]

(9) Tony Abbott calls for shark nets, and a commercial shark fishery in
northern NSW

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/28/tony-abbott-suggests-possibility-of-shark-cull-after-teenager-at/

Chiara Palazzo, SYDNEY ; 28 September 2016

Ashark attack on a 17-year-old surfer on the Eastern Australian coast
has sparked calls for better protection in an area known as "shark
alley", with the former prime minister questioning why there are not
nets in the area.

Cooper Allen was attacked by a shark, believed to be a great white,
while surfing at a beach off Australia's east coast on Monday.

The shark bit his right hip and leg at at Lighthouse Beach at Ballina,
near the border between New South Wales and Queensland. Remarkably, the
teenager did not have to undergo surgery for his wounds, but was given
stitches.

A political row has emerged following the attack over the lack of shark
protection in the area. Ballina is growing a reputation as Australia's
"shark alley" and has seen six serious great white attacks in the past
year, including one fatality.

Mike Baird, the New South Wales premier, said that government would do
everything it can "with the technology available" to curb the bloodshed,
but can't guarantee "that people will be safe."

The premier called at emergency meeting at Ballina on Wednesday to deal
with the situation after calls from former prime minister Tony Abbott to
net the state’s shark-infested north coast immediately.

The former prime minister said that people’s lives were more important
than sharks’.

"I’m lucky to surf at Sydney beaches, and the beaches in Sydney,
Newcastle and Wollongong since the 1940s have been protected by mesh,"
Mr Abbott said. "If it’s good enough for Sydney, Newcastle and
Wollongong, I don’t know why it’s not good enough for the NSW north coast.

"I don’t know why we don’t have a commercial shark fishery up there
because, frankly, if it’s a choice between people and animals, I’m on
the side of the people every time." [...]

Don Munro, president of local surf club Le-Ba Boardriders, called for
the NSW Government to do more to protect surfers in the area and
suggested a local cull could be carried out, ABC News reported. "We want
drum lines in, we want the commercial fisherman locally to be given back
their licence to manage and remove a shark permanently," he said.

(10) Australian Fisheries Management Authority introduces Quota system
for Southern Shark Fishery

http://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/vic/stories/s692550.htm

Thursday 3/10/2002

VIC Country Hour Home

Shark quota too small - Gerard Callinan

A court decision yesterday could throw the whole of the fisheries
management system into disaray.The Administrative Appeals Tribunal
ordered the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to reconsider the
allocation of shark quota to a Lakes Entrance fisherman. In what could
lead to challenges to all quota allocations, the Tribunal found AFMA
didn't provide enough quota to one particular fisherman , Horst Fischer.
On January one 2001 the Australian Fisheries Management Authority known
as AFMA introduced a quota system for the Southern Shark Fishery. This
week that system has been thrown into chaos with a ruling by the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruling that in the case of shark
fisherman Mr Fischer his allocation of quota based on catch history was
unfair. The decision raises more questions than it answers. But If Mr
Fischers quota is unfair what of the other 196 shark permit holders and
does this mean that fishermen will be eligible for compensation? Lawyer
for Mr Fischer, David Fitzpatrick says the decision casts a giant shadow
over the whole industry and possibly other fisheries managed by AFMA.
Tom Davies is General Manager of the Lakes Entrance Fishermans
Co-operative and says a decision like this was bound to come sooner or
later given the manner in which AFMA had introduced the quota system.
But what of the effects on the shark fishing industry in the wake of the
decision? Les Rogers is General Manager of Fisheries with AFMA he says
the decision is focussed on Mr Fischers case only and that implications
for other fisheries will be minimal Claims that the fishery is now in
chaos, and will now be in for a period of disruption because of the
decision are being played down by AFMA who promise to act quickly to
bring stability to the sector.

(11) Fishing industry battered by shark quota cut

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201004/s2872260.htm

Fishing industry battered by shark quota cut

Wednesday, 14/04/2010

Australian fishermen expect to lose up to a million dollars, because
their school shark quota has been reduced.

Fishing Authority AFMA says the national quota of 240 tonnes needs to be
cut by 30 per cent to restore stocks.

Victorian fisherman Russell Frost says that less than 30 years ago, just
five boats could account for that much school shark, but now it's shared
across four states.

"By the time you take that out of the fish and chip business, that will
push the price of flake up to the general public," he says.

"All our fisheries are just getting tighter and tighter and tighter and
tighter, and in the end, they're going to push us out the back door, I
think."

(12) Call for overturning ban on killing Great Whites and easing
restrictions on Shark fishing
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/9506359/Australia-shark-attacks-prompt-calls-for-ban-of-killing-great-whites.html

Australia shark attacks prompt calls for ban of killing great whites

A series of shark attacks along Australia’s west coast - including the
mauling of a big-wave surfer - has prompted authorities to consider
overturning a ban on killing great whites and easing restrictions on
shark fishing.

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

3:34PM BST 29 Aug 2012

The latest attack occurred off a remote surfing spot named Red Bluff,
about 650 miles north of Perth, where a 34-year-old surfer, Jonathan
Hines, was dragged to safety by a fellow surfer after being bitten on
the abdomen. Mr Hines, who was also bitten on the arm while trying to
fend off the shark, was flown to Perth and is in a stable condition.

"From what I hear he had to fight it off and it came back and had
another go and that’s when it got him on the arm," a local surfing
instructor, Josh Palmateer, who was at the beach, told the PerthNow
website. "He’s a lucky boy."

The attack follows a string of shark attacks along the west coast which
have led to the deaths of five people in the past 12 months and
increased pressure on local authorities to try to address the threat.
The cause of the growing number of attacks remains a mystery, but
experts believe the shark numbers may be increasing and have also
pointed out that more people are using the beaches. The state is at the
centre of Australia’s recent mining boom and has had the country’s
largest population growth, up by 14 per cent to more than 2.2 million
people in the past five years.

Federal authorities recently agreed to review the protected status of
the great white shark after a recent request by the West Australian

Tony Burke, the federal environment minister, said scientists would
assess the great white shark population to examine whether numbers have
recovered since the species was listed as protected in the late 1990s.

Animal welfare groups believe the shark is vulnerable and have urged the
government to preserve the ban.

However, the state’s premier, Colin Barnett, said shark numbers had
risen and it was time to consider measures such as allowing professional
fisherman to catch more sharks or culling large great whites around
swimming areas.

However, he noted that most of the attacks had occurred in remote
locations and that popular beaches were closely monitored and remained safe.

"I think that’s where we’ve got to give people absolute confidence: when
you swim on a beach between the flags, you’re safe," he said. The
state’s opposition rejected calls for a shark cull, saying authorities
should create more safe swimming areas at beaches.